Ginger
by WeCanFlyToGallifrey
Summary: She wasn't sure why she was a female, or ginger this time around. She still didn't know who the mysterious man she saw die in the library was. But after landing in seven-year-old Clara Oswald's backyard, coming back twelve years later, and taking her off to see the universe, she was sure of one thing. She was the Doctor. Karen Gillan as the Doctor and Matt Smith as River Song


"I don't want to go."  
The Doctor threw his head and hands back as blazing orange light coursed through his body. He screamed in pain until the burning subsided, then cried out, "Legs! I've still got legs. Very long legs." The Doctor observed. "Hair! I- I'm a girl!" The Doctor then noticed that the pinstriped jacket was much too tight and pulled it off. "I'm a girl!" She ran her hands through the long red hair falling down her back! "I'm ginger! No! Yes! I'm crashing!" She put her hands on the console to steer the ship.  
"Geronimo!"  
The TARDIS continued to spin wildly and the Doctor was thrown out the door. "Ugh!" She cried in frustration, rolling her eyes while she grabbed on to the threshold, dangling by her fingers. Her sonic screwdriver began to roll towards the open door. "Oh no you don't" she muttered as she caught it in between her teeth before she pulled herself back into the TARDIS. Suddenly everything turned on its side and she was tumbling down the corridors, her fall breaking only when she hit the deep end of the swimming pool. "Those were signed." She said sadly as she watched a bookshelf fall into the pool. Maybe putting the swimming pool in the library wasn't such a good idea, she thought. "Could I have a rope or something?" She shouted. The TARDIS groaned unhappily. "I'm sorry! It wasn't my fault! I didn't mean to burn the console room!" A black rope came tumbling down from the corridor into the rapidly draining swimming pool. The Doctor began to climb. The old girl seemed to have forgiven her for the violent regeneration, as it didn't take long for her to reach the console room. She climbed around the center console, sticking her head over the threshold and looking out of the box at a small brunette girl.  
"Hey! Do you have any apples?" The girl just continued to look at her. "Funny. Never really liked apples before. Maybe I'm having a craving. That's new. Never had a craving before. Is that a girl thing? Or just a new body?" The doctor climbed up the floor and sat on the edge of the TARDIS, looking down into the depths of the time ship.  
"Whoa. Look at that."  
"Are you okay?" The girl asked.  
"Just had a fall. All the way to the library."  
"You're soaking wet."  
"I was in the swimming pool."  
"You said you were in the library."  
"So was the swimming pool."  
"Are you a policewoman?"  
"No. Why? Did you call the police?"  
" Are you here about the crack in my wall?"  
"What crack? Oh!" The Doctor tumbled to the ground.  
"Are you all right?"  
"No, I'm fine. It's okay. This is all perfectly norm-" A golden tendril of energy escaped from her mouth before she could finish her sentence.  
"Who are you?"  
"I don't know yet. I'm still cooking. Does it scare you?"  
"No, you just seem a little weird."  
"No, not me. The crack in your wall, does it scare you?"  
"Yeah."  
"Well then, no time to lose. I'm the Doctor. Do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions, and don't wander off." She listed off the rules before walking straight into a tree.  
"Are you alright?  
"It's these legs! They're too long, I don't know what to do with them!" She said in her new Scottish voice she had decided she liked. Now she could really complain about things. She finally began to walk towards the house. The young girl followed suit. After about twenty minutes of the Doctor trying out new foods, she had finally settled for fish fingers and custard.  
"So, kid, you got a name?"  
"Clara. Clara Oswald. Why are you wearing a tie?"  
"Ties really worked for me a while ago. I guess it looks kinda stupid now, doesn't it?"  
"I like it." Clara replied.  
"So what about your mum and dad, then? Are they upstairs? Thought we'd have woken them by now."  
"I don't have a mum and dad. Just an aunt."  
"I don't even have an aunt." The Doctor replied.  
"Lucky."  
"I know." The Doctor said, leaning forward to dip another fish finger in the bowl. She groaned in disgust when a strand of her long red hair got stuck in the custard. She pulled it out, asking Clara "What do I do with this?"  
"With what?"  
"The hair! It keeps getting in my way!"  
"Braid it."  
"How?"  
"You don't know how to braid your hair?"  
"Its never been this long before."  
"It just happened?"  
"Basically."  
"Come with me" Clara held out her hand and led the Doctor to her room. "Sit here." The doctor sat at the foot of Clara's bed. Clara picked up a hairbrush and an elastic, sat down on the bedspread, and began to brush the Doctor's long red locks.  
"What are you doing?" The Doctor asked suspiciously.  
"Braiding your hair."  
"Oh."  
The Doctor sat cross legged on the carpet. She was the Lord of time, and here she was, dressed in rags and getting her hair braided by a seven year old girl.  
"So, Clara. Strange man- I mean woman- walks into your house in the middle of the night, and all you can think to do is braid my hair?"  
"It was messy."  
"You're a bit of a neat freak, aren't you?" the Doctor observed.  
"That's what Aunt Sharon says. I just like things to be in their place." Clara replied. weaving the last piece of hair into place. The doctor smiled to herself, amused at how mature Clara sounded for being so young.  
"So! Let's check out that crack in your wall."


End file.
